VISD Board to consider low attendance waiver for cold snap day

By BY CAROLINA ASTRAIN - CASTRAIN@VICAD.COM
March 19, 2014 at 7:05 p.m.Updated March 18, 2014 at 10:19 p.m.

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: Victoria school district school board regular monthly meeting

• WHEN: 6 p.m. Thursday

• WHERE: VISD Administration Building, 102 Profit Drive

Victoria school district board of trustees will review a low-attendance waiver request for one of the coldest days of the school year at Thursday's regular monthly meeting.

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said the agency expects to see several districts across the state submit similar waiver requests tied to the cold snap Jan. 24, which caused the Victoria school district to have a two-hour delayed start and some other area schools to cancel classes completely.

The high that day was 63 degrees with a low of 29 degrees for the Victoria area, according to the National Weather Service.

"If a district was shut down for more than two days and they don't want to lose funding, they need to apply for those waivers," said Ratcliffe.

Instead of calculating the district's state allotment by using 175 days, the waiver would modify the total number of instruction days to 174 - improving its chances at getting more state funds tied to attendance, said Diane Boyett, school district communications director.

"By the time the final numbers came in, there were some campuses that had significantly more than 20 percent of their students absent," Boyett said.

In other business, the board is expected to cancel the May 10 election because the candidates are unopposed, and discuss the district's instructional materials allotment and its Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills certification.